Yamato Gun
by The Reanimated Raynor
Summary: A Digimon and StarCraft crossover starring Matt from Digimon.


Ê Just In | Classics | Directory | Columns | DictionaryÊÊÊ[ Find ]ÊÊ Log In | Register   
------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Games È StarCraft È Yamato Guntext size: (+) : (-)  
Author: The Reanimated Raynor  
PG-13 - English - Action/Adventure/Mystery - Reviews: 1 - Publish date: 03-16-03 - Updated: 03-16-03 story id: 1271262  
  
Yamato Gun (A Starcraft/Digimon crossover)  
By the Reanimated Raynor (Reanimated_Raynor@interactive.rogers.com)  
Been a while since I made something this...well, epic. How long? Let me put it this way: The last one was my first fic, Peach Paradise 1. (A Nintendo Lemon-yes, you heard me right.) I have also spent the most time editing, tweaking, correcting, proofreading, and MiSTing this entire fic. This is by far the most perfect fic I've written. Of course, some of the elements of the plot, certain descriptions, etc. will probably still get me flamed for it. Oh well. Like that's going to stop me. If you're familiar with my Lemons, you probably know that most of them incorporate some weirdness in them (Take Epilogue, my Star Fox Adventures Lemon, for instance), and this fic is no exception. It's not a Lemon. Yet. I'm working on that. But until then, this has got about a PG-13 or so rating. If you're old enough to play Starcraft, you're old enough to read this fic.  
And now, the fic you've been waiting for...  
Yamato Gun  
Wh-where am I?  
I'm looking around what looks to be the bridge of some spaceship. Normally, I go back to the computer lab when I DigiPort out of the Digiworld. So why am I here? There are several people in this room, all working at computer terminals of some kind.  
"Matt? Where are we?" Gabumon asks me.  
At that, everyone in the room proceeds to turn around and stare directly at me. I sweatdrop.  
The person I assume to be the captain gets up from the elaborate chair in the middle of the room. He looks at me, looks at Gabumon, and seems to be pondering what to say.  
"...What are you doing on my ship?" He says after a while.  
"Uh, I'm not too sure, sir. It's kind of hard to explain."  
"In that case, I think it'd be better to talk with you in the conference room." The Captain turns to one of the people that had been working at a terminal. "Ensign, get Schezar. Tell him he's got the bridge. Something unexpected came up."  
"Yes sir." The Ensign says, and walks off the bridge."  
"Alright everyone, back to work. We'll figure this out. This way...Matt, was it?"  
"Yes sir."  
I follow the Captain to an adjoining room to the bridge. "So you know how you got here?" He asks me.  
"Well, not here specifically, but I do know how I traveled." I pause. I have no idea as to where I am, what date this is, and who this guy is. And I'm about to tell him something I've kept from my own parents. Hoo boy... "I happen to be one of a select few individuals. We are the only ones who have the knowledge and means to travel into an alternate dimension of sorts, called the Digiworld. We use these-" I hold up my D-3. "-to travel there. From there, we do pretty much the same thing to get back. But how I got here, I have no idea."  
"Hmm. you don't know precisely how you get from one dimension to the other, but yet here you are. I don't know whether to call you brave or dumb."  
"Actually, we-me and my friends, that is-were transported into the Digiworld accidentally. It was right about the same time as the really strange weather came over Tokyo."  
" 'Tokyo'? you're from Earth?"  
Did I miss something? "Yeah. you...aren't?"  
"Not directly, no. Guess it's time to hear my story, right? Our race is a descendant of Earth. We happen to be around 40,000 lightyears away from it. A few individuals-well, few as in several hundred thousand-were sent off to colonize other planets. The navigational system of the ships failed, and since we were all in cryogenic stasis we didn't notice until the ships landed. There were 3 surviving colonies, each on different planets in the system-in a part of the universe known to us as the Korpulu sector. The rest is kind of history, a lot of not-too-interesting stuff-but the main thing is, we are at war. We have been fortunate enough to ally with a race called the Protoss, and we are battling against a faction of us Terran as well as another race, called the Zerg."  
I sit and absorb this for some time. Neither of us can think of anything to say for a little while. "So would you be able to get back home from here, you think?" he asks.  
"Not sure. I'll have to load up a program I have on a floppy disk."  
"Oh, joy."  
"What?"  
"We're about three centuries into the future. Floppy disks and that have become just a little archaic about now. you think technical evolution was fast in the twentieth century? you should see the twenty-second. Anyways, it'll take a little reverse engineering, but I'm sure we could jury-rig something."  
"Ok."  
"He's with you, I assume?" the Captain says, motioning to Gabumon.  
"Yeah. His name is Gabumon."  
"Hi." Gabumon says.  
"Anyways, we've figured out that this alternate dimension is actually a giant computer program, and that we sort of turn into computer data when we transport."  
"Weird. So you're kind of like...hackers?"  
I can see he's struggling to understand this. This sounds well beyond their capabilities so far. Of course, nobody from our dimension knows how it works exactly, either. "Not exactly, more like..." I realize I've never really tried to make an analogy to our position in relation to the Digiworld. "...Like characters in a video game, almost."  
"So why bother returning to this digital dimension, if you don't mind me asking?"  
"Well, our job we were sort of destined to do-hence our formal title, the DigiDestined-was to keep watch over the Digiworld. The Digimon-the creatures that reside in the Digiworld, like Gabumon-aren't all good. Some are evil, and it's our job to destroy them."  
"Uh huh." His turn to ponder the information for a while. "...you know, I never properly introduced myself. Sorry about that. The name's Jim Raynor."  
"Thanks, Mr. Raynor."  
"No need for the 'Mister'. Raynor's fine."  
"Alright, Raynor. Now, about that jury-rigged floppy drive?"  
* * *  
I cannot believe how much their technology has exceeded our own. They've got holotechnology. I mean, so do we, but we can actually touch these things! And I had to explain to the best of my ability how the Floppy system works. If only I could contact Izzy, he'd have a field day...but the communication function of the D-3 isn't working for whatever reason...Maybe this dimension, or whatever I'm in, is interfering with the D-3 in some way. "This was actually changed around a bit in the Digiworld by one of the other DigiDestined, a computer whiz named Izzy. He made it so this disk could hold...at least a full Hard Drive worth of information." I say to Raynor, holding out the disk. "Hope your computer's got enough space left to upload this."  
"How much does it need?"  
"About 7 gigabytes."  
"Oh." Raynor seems to be about to crack up into laughter. "Computer, how much available space is there on the main computer drive?"  
The computer blips. "Approximately 32 exobytes." It replies.  
Raynor finally collapses into laughter. "Yeah, I think we'll be able to handle it."  
I suddenly feel very stupid. "Yeah." I say, putting the disk into the makeshift holo-drive. It reads the disk, uploads it, then runs the program. A window full of boxes comes up. "This is the program?" Raynor says.  
"Well, yeah. This was ripped from the Digiworld itself, and each box represents a sector of the world. The black ones are evil, the white ones are good, and the other-colored ones are under dispute."  
"I see."  
I click on a tab on the top. "Oh, great!" I say. "The DigiPort is open now!"  
"So you can go back?"  
"Yeah, I think." I say, getting out my D-3. "Well, if this works, goodbye, Raynor."  
"See ya." He says.  
"Digiport open!"  
* * *  
I'm back in the computer lab. Mimi, Sora and Izzy are there. "Matt! Where the heck have you been?!" Mimi says.  
"I'm not sure, exactly. I was in the Digiworld, then I went to exit out and I ended up on some starship...where was it? Like 40,000 lightyears away three centuries into the future." I reply.  
"That's impossible!" Izzy says. "Digiporting here worked fine yesterday."  
"I know, but it's what happened." I say.  
"What was it like?" Biyomon asks.  
"It was weird." Gabumon replies. "I asked Matt where we were, and then next thing I knew everyone dropped what they were doing and stared at us. Then the captain brought us into this big conference room thing and Matt explained everything."  
"What?!" Mimi shouted. "you could have blown our cover!"  
"Well, yeah, but I mean, come on. They're on the other side of the galaxy. They haven't seen the earth in centuries. Gimme a break." I say.  
"I just hope you're not as loose-lipped to anyone who could blow our cover if they knew."  
"Yeah, I'll be more careful, but since they were in the future I think that they might be in some third dimension."  
"Even so..." Izzy said. "...This is kind of impossible for this to happen. I mean, we only know about the Digiworld, and after all, this is the first time something like this happened."  
"I know. I wonder what's happening with the Digiworld?" I ask into thin air.  
"How'd you get back, if you didn't have the program?" Sora asked.  
"I did, remember? That hacked floppy disk?" I reply. Suddenly, I feel like I've just pushed a self-destruct button or something.  
Mimi flips out again. "you left a copy of the Digiworld program on THEIR COMPUTER?!!"  
"Yeah, but I would never have gotten here if I didn't upload the program." I say sheepishly, holding my ears.  
"I-oooh...I hate it when you're right."  
"Sorry. I'll make a point of being wrong more often, just for you."  
"So what do we do?" Izzy asks.  
"I'm not sure. If one of us gets back there we'll just have to go back. Maybe we could be of some help there also." I say.  
"Oh yeah, I'm sure. I think we'll be able to handle only one dimension at a time." Sora replies.  
"It was just a suggestion."  
* * *  
About a week later, Izzy finally discovers something different in the Digiworld. "I made a catalogue of the Digiworld's code back before Davis and the rest of the new DigiDestined." Izzy explains to me, TK, Tai and Kari, punching up a program on his laptop. "There were 50 characters, and no, I've still got no clue as to what each represent. That's not the weird thing. I did a recent catalogue, and look what happened."  
Izzy tiles the windows. On the left is the original symbol alphabet. On the right is the current one. "There are 17 symbols that were never in the Digiworld's program before."  
"Could that be just...kind of normal for the Digiworld?" TK asks. "I mean, the it could just be evolving or upgrading to Version 2.0 or something."  
"I thought so too, but I was able to figure out what parts of the code were for what purpose in the Digiworld. The 17 symbols were almost exclusively in the DigiPort code. So if I'm right, someone-or something- hacked, or otherwise changed, the system."  
A heavy silence falls over the group. "Someone hacked the Digiworld?" Kari repeats.  
"I'm afraid so. They've made it so we always end up on that ship instead of here. But he, she, it, whatever did this, made a glitch in the code. If we come from the ship to the Digiworld, the next time we DigiPort, we go back to our original DigiPort location, or in other words, here."  
"But what happens if they fix the glitch?" Tai asks.  
"Then we'll be stuck on the ship."  
"Why don't we just remove all the new symbols from the code?" I suggest. "I mean, if the program worked fine without the new ones, wouldn't it just sort of go back to how it was?"  
"Well, you know how there was the equivalent of an Area 51 twelve times over security system on the code?" Izzy says, sweatdropping. "The other place the code appeared was in the security code. I barely made any progress with just the 50 symbols. With 67...I'll have to start all over, and it'll take me months to even scratch the surface."  
"Months?" TK says.  
"Yeah. Straight."  
"Oh, excellent." Kari says. "So that's not really an option right now. What is?"  
"There might be something in the third dimension that we could find out. I mean, if whoever hacked the Digiworld could get past the security system, then they have to know the system inside out. They made it so the digiporter went to this ship for a reason."  
"So I've got to go back." I say.  
"Yeah. We'll come with you."  
"Alright. Sounds like a plan." Tai says. "Let's do it! Digiport open!"  
* * *  
"We're going to need these repairs done in three days, Magellan."  
"Yes, sir. Well within the time frame we need."  
"Good."  
Raynor gets up from his chair. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in my-"  
Raynor notices us. "-Conference room. Welcome back, Matt."  
"Hi."  
"Another glitch in your digital world?  
"No. We've figured out some more stuff about what's happening. I think you should hear this."  
"Alright. Good thing there's a lull in the attacks right now. Are these your friends?"  
"Yes. This is Kari, and Tai, TK and Izzy."  
"Hi." They all said.  
"Hi." Raynor returned. "Well, you all follow me. Kazansky, you've got the bridge."  
"Roger."  
Me, Kari, TK, Tai and Izzy walk in after Raynor to the conference room. "So what have you found out?" He asks.  
"Well-actually, I'm not the most technologically gifted person here. Izzy?"  
"I always have to do the explaining..." Izzy says under his breath, a slightly annoyed tone to his voice. "I was able to take a look at the actual code that makes up the dimension known as the Digiworld. We've known about it, and have been traveling there and back, for several years. When we were the only DigiDestined-us five and 3 others, Mimi, Sora and Joe- there were only 50 characters that made up the 'alphabet' of the program. Now, there have been 17 characters that were inserted into the program, and all were in the transportation sector and the security sector of the program exclusively. In short, the program was rearranged by someone who knew the program well enough to get past all the security systems and add the symbols."  
Raynor thinks about this for a second. "And this all means...?"  
Izzy facefaults. "It means whoever changed the program made it so we end up here."  
"Ah...So they knew about this timeline, your timeline, and the Digiworld?"  
"Yes."  
"Beautiful."  
"Yeah. you know how you said 'the rest is history'? We need to hear it." I say.  
"Alright. Basically, the Zerg tried to assimilate us into their race. That's what they do-how they evolve. Anyway, they succeeded, assimilating a psychic named Sarah Kerrigan. She is now in control of the entire race. They were originally controlled by this big being called the Overmind, but it was killed by the late Tassadar, a Protoss warrior who brought the two sides of the Protoss race-the High and Dark Templar-together but sacrificed himself to kill the Overmind...everybody with me still?"  
"Yeah." we all said.  
"Good. After that, Kerrigan took over and then proceeded to rally her troops and kicked the living shit out of us. She used both the Protoss and us Terrans, both to regain control over the remaining factions of her race and to sucker us into her trap. Another Protoss warrior-named Fenix-died in one of the battles, as did a Terran General, named Edmund Duke. She helped to destroy a collective enemy by enlisting an infested Terran by the name of Samir Duran, and he then abandoned Kerrigan. He's been nowhere to be found ever since."  
"This Duran...he was part of the Zerg?" Kari asks.  
"Yeah, but how he managed to think for himself I don't know. I do know of someone who might know more about Duran...I'll see if I can arrange a meeting with him."  
"Thanks." I say.  
* * *  
A day later, we're down on the planet of Shakuras, which Raynor's ship, named the Hyperion, was orbiting. We are in a strangely-shaped building, called a Nexus by the Protoss. We're awaiting the arrival of the guy Raynor got us a meeting with, named Zeratul. "Ah, he's here." Raynor says.  
There's nobody here. "Are you sure?" TK says, looking around.  
"Yeah. you see that distortion, there?" Raynor points to a window, where light seems to be bending. "That's him."  
The figure decloaks itself. A tall, whitish-grey-skinned person is standing in front of us, with a large flowing cape. "En Taro Adun." He says- or rather thinks, as he doesn't seem to have a mouth. He must be psychic.  
"En Taro Adun, Zeratul." Raynor replies. "How are things on Shakuras?"  
"They are better, now that the Zerg have left. We have a chance to rebuild our once-great race."  
"Good to hear."  
"Who are these Terran? I have not met them...and I sense something...different about them."  
"They're actually from a different timeline, about 300 of our years back in time and from Earth. This is Matt, and TK, Izzy, Tai, and Kari."  
"Hi." Came the chorus of us five.  
"What brings them to Shakuras? Do they need assistance against the Zerg?"  
"No, they got here-well, I'll let Izzy explain. He seems to know the most about the details."  
After Izzy facefaulted at having to explain the program and everything a third time, we inquired about Duran. Zeratul growled at the mention of that name. "Duran...he is not what he seems, even though he is known to be infested now. Or so we think. I was drawn to the planet of Braxis, a snow-covered planet in this sector. There, I saw an experiment that Duran himself carried out-the experiment that the Overmind tried to carry out-to create a Zerg/Protoss hybrid. He succeeded, unfortunately. He said he seeded many planets with this being. There was some distortion in his voice-only 3 beings have that distortion-most of the Templar from our race...The Xel'Naga, which were wiped out by the Zerg...and the Overmind."  
"The Overmind is dead, isn't it? I mean, Tassadar killed it, right?" Tai says.  
"Yes. Also, Duran was, we think, a Terran originally, and even if he were Protoss, could not be infested at any rate. And there has been no record we have encountered of a living Xel'Naga for thousands of years. Which means all three choices are not right. Duran had said something about being known by many names, on many worlds...I have not yet deciphered what that means. I also do not know where he is. He contacted me via psychic link when I was on Braxis."  
"Do you think he would be able to rearrange an entire program like that, though?"  
"I would not underestimate his technical knowledge. He could have, yes."  
"Ok. So assuming Duran's our guy, what do we do about it?" Raynor asks.  
"We have several engineers that might be able to help with the code. Having warp technology for millenia, we may be able to achieve more progress in correcting the program. May I see the program?" Zeratul asks Izzy. "If we could make out what the symbols mean, then we could be able to prevent this from happening again."  
Izzy hands Zeratul his laptop, and when Zeratul looks at the screen, his eyes go wide. "This cannot be."  
"...What?" Kari asks.  
"These are Protoss symbols. This means life, and this strength, and-" he stares at one particular symbol. "-This symbol is part of the original alphabet we had, that was in use when we were visited by the Xel'Naga. This means a catastrophic change, one that would mean tearing a world apart and putting it back together." He scans down the rest of the program. "This is the only occurrence of this symbol, and in the old ways, if this symbol is shown only once...it means Armageddon will befall the cosmos."  
* * *  
Back at the computer lab, we told Mimi, Sora and Joe what happened. "So what will happen? Is there still something that could rip apart the Digiworld?" Sora asks.  
"If someone can change the code, they can delete it. And if it's deleted, it's lost forever." Izzy explains. "So yes, this Duran, if he changed the code he could delete everything and destroy the Digiworld."  
All this time, Kari seems kind of distant. Like there's something she's almost figured out.  
"He knows what we're going to do." she says.  
"Everyone stops and looks at Kari. "What?" Tai says.  
"Duran knows what we're going to do. He put the 17 symbols in, then made it so there was only one instance of that Apocalypse symbol. The only one with that knowledge would have been Zeratul. And we went into a meeting with him. He must know what we will do before we do."  
"He is psychic, remember." I interject. "He contacted Zeratul from a psychic link." A short pause. "So if he knows what we're going to do how are we going to fight him?"  
"We make sure he doesn't know." Mimi says.  
"I repeat, how?"  
"Post-hypnotic suggestions?" TK suggests.  
Everyone seems to realize the validity of that idea is at the same time. "Great idea, TK!" Tai says. "But...who here knows how to hypnotize someone?"  
"I'll see if maybe there's a book at the library. It's worth a try." Izzy says.  
"Alright. Sounds like a plan."  
* * *  
Izzy, to everyone's delight, had found a book. But what are we going to say? What kind of suggestion would we put in to our heads? We've been trying to figure that out for the last hour. "We're going to have to figure out what we'd do under normal circumstances." Sora says. "And then we're going to have to think up an alternate plan and put that into our subconscious."  
"Yeah. We usually send our Digimon to attack the enemy. So...what, we go at him ourselves?" I say.  
"If we had something to fight with. Maybe we could get some stuff from Raynor, rifles or something." TK says.  
"you're full of good ideas, aren't you?" Kari says. "There's going to be a lot of planning involved to choreograph this right. But what's stopping Duran from reading our thoughts when we tell Raynor our plan?"  
"Shoot." Tai says. "That's the one major flaw. How will we able to get Raynor in on this without Duran knowing?"  
"He probably can't use his psychic powers interdimensionally." Izzy suggests. "If we can somehow get Raynor into the Digiworld then we might be able to get some plan together."  
"We don't even know if it's a different dimension. I mean, this is 300 years into the future, 40,000 lightyears away, but from this planet. We might just be going back and forward in time." Sora says.  
"Let's assume that this is an alternate dimension, for the time being. If it turns out to be the same dimension, we'll be dead. Let's just work with what we've got right now. So we need to get the new DigiDestined to go to Raynor's ship and talk to him, while giving them as few details Duran doesn't already know as possible."  
"Alright. I'll get on the phone, talk to Davis, Yolei and Ken. See if this is gonna work." Tai says.  
"Sounds like a plan. Where are we going to meet?" TK asks.  
"At the soccer field?"  
"Ok. Anybody have a problem with meeting tomorrow, after school?"  
"We'll be there." We all say.  
* * *  
"Ok, I get that. Sounds kinda weird, though."  
"Davis..." Yolei says. "How weird is it compared to seven kids with pet monsters going and saving a digital dimension?"  
"Good point. So when we get to the Hyperion, what do we say? 'Hi, Raynor, next chance you get could you come with us to the Digiworld?' And even so, how'll he get there?"  
"One of you's going to have to stay in the digital world with us." Izzy says. "Then Raynor can use his or her D-3 to get there."  
"Is that possible? I mean, only DigiDestined have tried to Digiport before." Mimi asks.  
"I certainly hope it works." Ken replies. "Otherwise, we may as well throw up our hands and get out the white flag."  
"We're working with a lot of assumptions here." I say. "If one of these is wrong..."  
"Hey, don't think like that." Sora says. "It'll work, you just have to think positive."  
"Ok, I'm positive this will fail."  
"Matt..."  
"I'm kidding! Of course I think this'll work. Otherwise I wouldn't be here."  
"Ok. Now that that little crisis is averted, who's going to stay?" Yolei asks.  
"No offense to Davis, but I think he should stay." Ken says.  
"Hey!" He replies.  
"Well, you're not exactly that good a speaker. If Yolei and I go we'll make a much better-sounding case with the stuff we do have."  
"But-I-oh, alright."  
"Thanks for understanding."  
"Besides..." Kari says. "you'll know the plan before they do."  
"Someone should stay here to hold down the fort, so to speak." Joe says. "And I'd be more than happy to stay here. Besides..." Joe whispers in Tai's ear. "I don't think I'll be able to handle the kind of weaponry that Raynor'll get us."  
"Alright, Joe." Tai says. "If you want, you can stay here. We've gotta get this done now, so let's hightail it back to the computer lab and get to the Digiworld."  
* * *  
It's been a suspenseful ten minutes. We don't know what Raynor's reaction will be to this. Suddenly, Raynor, Ken and Yolei emerges out of a TV that was lying in the middle of the field (where we came into the Digiworld from also). He looks around. "This is the Digiworld?" He asks.  
"Yeah." I say.  
"It's very realistic. you got here from the 20th century?"  
"Yeah. We did."  
"It's mind-boggling. This looks to be more like something from my time. Or later."  
"...Which would explain a lot." Izzy says.  
"Yeah. Anyway, your friends told me you had a plan, but didn't tell me the details. What have you got?"  
"Hold on a sec." TK says.  
"What?"  
"We'll need someone to go back so we can accomplish our plan without Duran knowing." I explain. "Ken, Yolei? Sorry, but we still need you to play dumb here."  
Ken and Yolei get themselves gone. "There. Now, we might be able to pull this off."  
We all explain the details of our plan. "Ok. I get that. Sounds like you've got something there. Do you have something that'll be able to communicate between this universe and another?"  
"Yeah. We've got my laptop."  
"Ok, but we're going to have to get Yolei or Ken to get it. They're the ones who are going to end up directly in our universe." Sora says.  
"I'll go get them." Sora says, and walks after them.  
"So what do I do until then? Stay here?"  
"Yeah. Sorry." I reply.  
"Hey, if it saves this place..." Raynor looks around. "This looks like a paradise."  
"It would be, had it not been almost destroyed about five thousand times by now."  
"Oh. Everything comes at a price."  
"Unfortunately."  
Sora returns with Ken and Yolei. "Which one of you knows where my apartment is?" Izzy asks.  
"I do." Yolei replies.  
"Ok. I'll need my laptop so that Raynor can communicate with you guys on the Hyperion. Both of you need to go back so that you'll end up directly in Raynor's dimension after, but Yolei, you need to go to my apartment and get the laptop. Here's my key." Izzy hands a key to Yolei. "Sorry to pick on you two, but you don't know what's happening, and we need that."  
"No problem."  
Ken and Yolei DigiPort out. "This is going to be difficult." Raynor says. "Of course, all the times we've seen him, he's probably read our thoughts and would know what to do."  
"So this might come as a shock to him. We could use that to our advantage." Tai says.  
"Yeah. We could maybe call for a Dimensional Recall, bring in a Dark Archon, and then Maelstrom Duran."  
"What's a Dark Archon?" Kari asks.  
"Well, these Protoss beings, surrounded by Dark Energy, they're pretty elite. They have the ability to Maelstrom people-freeze any organic being. In otherwords, if Duran's not a robot, he'll be frozen. There's only one thing about the Dimensional Recall, though."  
"And that is..." Sora says.  
"It will require close to all the energy from 5 organisms, which means that the five of you will need to give up your energy to transport this thing. It'll knock the 5 of you out, but only for a minute. We can get Medics there fast to help you."  
"And then we can destroy him...it...whatever." Mimi says.  
"Exactly."  
Ken and Yolei return. Yolei is out of breath. "I ran all the way there." She says between gasps.  
"Ok. your D3 things, they can communicate with these?" Raynor asks.  
"Yeah. Like in a chat room."  
"Alright then."  
Ken and Yolei Digiport back. Izzy sets up the Laptop IM room.  
--- *RynOr has entered DIGIM  
*Ryn0r has entered DIGIM  
*Yo has entered DIGIM  
*Ken has entered DIGIM  
(Pause)  
Yo: They don't believe us.  
Ryn0r: Show them this: I was born on Mar Sara, January 29th, 2516, my parents were Elizabeth and Jacob Raynor, and I had 7 years Wraith and Vulture Piloting experience before that whole mess with Mengsk and the Magistrate of the old confederacy.  
(short pause)  
Ken: They still don't believe you.  
Ryn0r: WHAT?! DO THEY THINK I TOLD MY LIFE STORY TO A BUNCH OF KIDS I DON'T EVEN KNOW?!  
(short pause)  
Yo: Now they believe you.  
Ryn0r: -_-;  
Yo: Yeah. Anyway, who should I talk to?  
Ryn0r: Talk to Zeratul. Get Magellan to patch you through.  
Yo: He's patching me through.  
(short pause)  
Yo: That's Zeratul?  
Ryn0r: Judging by your reaction, yeah, that's Zeratul. Show the screen to him, but don't look at it yourself. Just so you still don't know our plan.  
Yo: OK. He says N Tarot Adoon or something.  
Ryn0r: No peeking.  
(short pause)  
Ryn0r: I'm in the dimension the other Terran were in, Zeratul. We need to borrow a Dark Archon, as well as 5 energy converters and a Recall unit.  
Yo: He says he's going to hook up to the IM room.  
Ryn0r: I said no peeking!  
Yo: I covered up the last 10 lines. We can't see anything. Don't worry.  
Ryn0r: Ok then.  
*Zer has entered DIGIM  
Zer: We shall send what you need. Do you require it to be sent to the Digital world?  
Ryn0r: The Dark Archon we can Recall from this dimension, right?  
Zer: Correct.  
Ryn0r: Then we only need the 5 converters in the Digiworld.  
Zer: Very well. you shall have them by the end of the next hour.  
*Zer has exited DIGIM  
Yo: Ok. Anything else we need?  
Ryn0r: Ask if Alan Schezar's on the bridge.  
Yo: ...how do you pronounce his last name?  
*Ryn0r blinks  
Ryn0r: Ski-zar.  
Yo: Ok. Thanks.  
(short pause)  
Ken: He's here.  
Ryn0r: Give him the laptop.  
(short pause)  
*Yo's name has been changed to Sch  
Sch: you got there OK?  
Ryn0r: Yeah. Listen, I'm going to need...  
Ryn0r: 4 Gauss rifles  
Ryn0r: 4 C-10 Canister rifles  
Ryn0r: 5 Medics  
Rynor: 8 Marine Armour Suits  
Sch: (singing) And a partridge in a pear tree...  
Ryn0r: Very funny.  
Ryn0r: And make sure all the Armour suits are Stimpack-compliant.  
Sch: Check.  
Ryn0r: 2 Goliaths  
Sch: w/ or w/o drivers?  
Ryn0r: Without. I'm going to have to teach these guys how to drive these things, so can you FTP a tutorial?  
*Sch is requesting a FTP: Goli.exe *FTP is approx. 17 terabytes *accept?  
*Ryn0r blinks  
Ryn0r: Uh, Schezar? send the smallest one. Remember, this is 20th century. I've got 7 gigs of space to work with.  
*FTP has been cancelled  
*Sch is requesting a FTP: Goli.exe *FTP is approx. 3 gigabytes *accept?  
*Accepted. *Downloading. *File Transfer Rate: Approx. 90 Mb/Sec. *Estimated time of completion: 5 min 40.8 sec  
Ryn0r: Thx.  
Sch: Wlkm.  
Ryn0r: you can hand this back to Yolei now.  
*Sch's name has been changed to Yo  
Yo: What're you DLing?  
Ryn0r: I promise, when this is over, we'll fill you in. But for now, it's lights out.  
Ken: It's not our bedtime yet.  
*Ryn0r facefaults  
Rynor: I mean I can't tell you anything.  
Ken: Oh.  
Yo: We knew that.  
RynOr: Riiight.  
*Yo whacks Ryn0r around with a metal hammer  
Ryn0r: Ow.  
*RynOr gets out his Gauss Rifle  
RynOr: Don't mess with me if you don't want to see this pointed at you.  
RynOr: it can fire 30 bullets in 10 seconds.  
*RynOr smiles evilly  
Ken: Don't flip out on us.  
Yo: Eeep. I'll be good.  
*Yo apologizes profusely  
RynOr: Good.  
*RynOr puts the rifle away  
Ken: Is that the rifle in your pocket or are you just happy to see Sora?  
Ryn0r: For the sake of your friend's laptop, I'm glad looks don't kill.  
Yo: Lol.  
Ryn0r: How come Ken is on separately?  
Ken: I'm in the room from a panel on the bridge. I've covered up everything pertinent, so don't worry. I still have no idea what's happening.  
Ryn0r: Good. Our success depends on that.  
*File Transfer complete. *Open now?  
Ryn0r: DL's done.  
*Open cancelled. *Goli.exe is stored in "C:\Windows\Goli".  
Ryn0r: To save memory I'm going to exit the IM.  
Yo: Ok. What should we do until you need us again?  
RynOr: Sit there and twiddle your thumbs.  
Ryn0r: Hey! That wasn't me. Stop it, Sora.  
RynOr: Sure it was me. Don't listen, I think I'm being lifaced.  
Ryn0r: Sora...  
RynOr: What? Oops.  
*Ryn0r (The REAL one) shoots the imposter  
*RynOr has exited IM  
Ryn0r: Ask Schezar for some temporary quarters.  
Ken: you mean money that'll disappear after a while?  
Ryn0r: you always a punster?  
Ken: yeah.  
Ryn0r: groan  
Yo: (To Mimi) Keep your hands to yourself!  
Ryn0r: I hate punsters.  
Ryn0r: *blink* Yolei...  
Yo: Sorry. I'm just going to not say anything anymore.  
Ryn0r: Thanks.  
Ryn0r: Even though I'm logging off now.  
Ryn0r: Cya. ^_^  
*Ryn0r has exited IM  
*Yo has exited IM  
*Ken has exited IM  
---  
"Alright, that's taken care of." Raynor says. "I've got some stuff on the way for you guys. Rifles, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, mech suits, and medics for you guys."  
"Who's getting what?"  
"Tai, Matt, Davis and Ken are getting the rifles, Mimi, Sora, Yolei and Izzy are getting the grenade launchers-"  
"you sure we can handle these things?" Izzy interrupted.  
"Yeah. These things are 24th century technology. The launchers are lighter than the rifles."  
"Define 'light'." Tai says.  
"Oh, about...half a kilo for the rifles, a quarter kilo for the rifles."  
"Wow, that's light."  
"Yeah. Anyways, the mechs go to TK and Kari, and you're all getting armour."  
"Ok. We really appreciate this, Raynor." I say.  
"Hey, no problem. I'm a freedom fighter, remember?"  
* * *  
Ken and Yolei have transported back with all the stuff. It's in 3 big crates so as not to show them (and subsequently Duran) what's being transported. "Alright. We've got the candy." I say. Candy was the agreed- upon euphemism we use around Ken and Yolei.  
We've got codenames for the specifics, too. 'Candles' are the grenade launchers, 'flashlights' are the rifles, 'legs' are the mechs, and 'doors' are the armour. "Yeah, well, don't start calling me a candyman or anything."  
" 'Candy'?" Ken asks.  
"We made up all these codenames so as to discuss these in your prescence. Just so you don't feel left out." Tai replies.  
"Oh. Thanks." Yolei says.  
"you're welcome. Now, we've got the candy, now we need the toothache...Duran."  
"Alright. So we're going to have to go back to the Hyperion and call him out." Ken says.  
"No, first we need to do some stuff-you know what..." Izzy says. "We can just make it that you don't remember anything. So we can tell you. Everything."  
"Cool."  
We explain everything, elaborating about the Dark Archon, and so on. "And so we've got to hypnotize everyone so they don't think about the plan. Telepaths can't read a person's subconcious." I explain.  
"Alright. Izzy?"  
"Uh...sorry. I forgot it in the real world."  
Everyone except Izzy facefaults.  
* * *  
After another short visit to our timeline we've got the book. Izzy's already hypnotized everyone else, and nobody knows the plan except Raynor, who's going to be coordinating our attack, and Izzy, because he's last to be hypnotized. Now someone's got to wipe Izzy's mind. We draw straws, and unfortunately, I get the short one. Hope I don't make him think he's a chicken or anything.  
Izzy is sitting now, his back to one of the crates. What are they for again? Oh well, I'm sure we'll know what to do. Anyway, I read what it says in the book. "I'm going to count to 5. On the count of five, you're going to be sound asleep. One, you're starting to get tired. your eyes are getting heavy. Two, you're starting to really feel it now. A wave of tiredness is washing over you. Three, your entire body feels like it's made of lead, you're so tired. you're drifting off. Four, you're almost asleep, you're slipping, every part of you is relaxing, and...five, you're asleep." I look up. Izzy's asleep. "Alright. Now I-" I can feel my lips moving, my voice box vibrating...but I can't hear my own words. I'm assuming I'm talking...oh, I get it. It's so I can't hear the plan again myself. Good thinking, Izzy. "-Now I'm going to count backwards from 5 to 1. When I get to 1 you won't remember anything about the plan consciously, but you will know what to do. Five, you're starting to wake up, the last remnants of your dream are fading away. Four, your eyes are getting lighter, three, they're getting even lighter, two, energy is flooding your system, you're almost out of your sleep, and one, you're awake."  
He's awake. "So when do we begin?" Izzy says  
"We've already finished."  
"Oh, the old 'fastest gun in the west' routine?"  
"Knew something would have come out of us getting you the K-PAX DVD for Christmas."  
"Yeah, well, apart from learning a lot of stuff about how they put together some of the scenes, I did remember a few quotes."  
"Right. Anyways, we're ready now. Who's going to DigiPort to the Hyperion?...Right, Mimi. Forgot."  
"No, it was just imprinted into your subconcious. Slight difference."  
"Yeah. Anyways...Mimi?"  
"See you. Digiport open!"  
She digiports out. "you don't remember anything?"  
"Nope."  
"Not even feeling tired, then just going to sleep?"  
"No."  
"And you don't think you're a chicken?"  
"Buck-baguck!"  
"Yeah. you're normal."  
Mimi returns. "That was quick." Tai says.  
"I just said, out loud, for Duran to come to the Digiworld and then digiported out."  
"Hope he heard."  
"I heard."  
Everyone spins around, and stares at Duran.  
* * *  
He just came out of nowhere-well, so did we, but at least there's some noise accompanying it to announce it. And that cool theme music. At any rate, he is here.  
HE'S HERE?!  
"Do you know why the Digiworld was created?" He asks, jumping down from his perch on one of the crates.  
"No. Why?" I reply.  
"It was created by me. It was for a test of crossbreeding."  
"Crossbreeding?" Izzy says. "But most of the Digimon here aren't even close to animals on Earth."  
"Not true. And even some of the ones that aren't, they're modelled after organisms I encountered. I used this world to crossbreed several organisms, and it resulted in all the digimon you have encountered, and truly all the digimon, including your own. you must realize that I am not what I seem by now. I am not human, nor infested."  
"Then what are you?" Ken asks.  
"Hmm...since I'm about to debug this program before deleting it, I may as well show my true form."  
He's encased in a bright ball of light that expands to about three times its size, slowly. When it fades, a 15-foot blue-skinned and cloaked being stands in his place. "I have said to Zeratul that I come by many names, on many worlds. Like the God of the Protoss before the Aeon of Strife, Nexar."  
Another bright ball. Another transformation. A brain-like organism is now sitting before us, only it's about 50 feet big. "I was the Zerg's Overmind as well. I was the brainchild-pardon the pun, as I know I look like a brain-of Kerrigan, as well as the taking over of Aiur, the Protoss' old homeworld.  
Another ball. The Terran Duran is standing before us again. "And of course, then Raynor and the UED know me as Samir Duran."  
Yet another ball. This is what I assume to be the last transformation. A surprisingly Human-like being is standing here now. It is green skinned, and seemingly covered with metal plates or scales. It has wings, big ones, like a dragonflies'. It's carrying a large green-handled scythe, with a small red blade. "I do not have a name in this form." It says. "I am the last of the Xel'Naga."  
"The Xel'Naga?"  
"Yes. Our race was what stirred the pot, so to speak. We created the Zerg forces. We also created the Protoss, though they were much more highly evolved than the larvae-like species we made the Zerg out of. We orchestrated all the events that led to our race's destruction, and it was because we were too proud. We thought we were Gods, justified in manipulating the evolution of species around the galaxy. Which was why our race was destroyed. All except me. I was watching on a nearby moon when our race was massacred by Zerg attackers. We were completely unprepared for an attack."  
"Served you right, playing God like that."  
"We were gods! We had the knowledge that would have taken your race millions of aeons to figure out, and only in several thousand years did we accomplish that! We evolved at such a frenzied pace, it put the rapidly assimilating Zerg species to shame!" It said, its purple eyes flashing a bright flickering red. "Now..." It morphed back into Duran's form. "This is my favorite form to take when I feel...alive again. So it is only fitting I will be in this form when I destroy you and then this program!"  
Raynor yelled "NOW!" from his hiding place behind one of the crates.  
Because we used that as a trigger, we immediately acted, as if on instinct. Davis, Sora, Mimi, Tai and I pressed the button on our energy converters.  
* * *  
It felt...it was like my soul was pulled out of my body. Like the only thing I could think about was being so very tired... I barely heard my own body hit the ground. Next thing I knew, I was being revived by one of Raynor's Medics. "We don't have much time." Raynor said before I got up. I never felt so tired in my life. "Here, Matt, get this on and get your rifle."  
I did so. Everyone had their armour on already, and Kari and TK were already in their Goliaths. "Ready?"  
"Ready!" came the chorus of all 10 of us.  
"GO!"  
8 of us Stimpacked ourselves at the same time. It was like pure energy, a bolt of lightning, going right through me. I just let loose with the bullets, as did Tai, Davis and Ken. Mimi, Sora, Yolei and Izzy were hitting him with their Canister rifles, and TK and Kari hit him with their Twin Autocannons. Then the Maelstrom started to wear off. "YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!" he shouted.  
He aimed at TK's Goliath. Ha! They're guarded by Protoss shields and ultra-thick armour. What's he going to do with his launcher?  
He shot some weird missile thing. We could hear the machine shutting down. "Beautiful technology, this. Consider yourself Locked Down, Takeru. And as for you, Hikari..." He shot another one at Kari's Goliath and it also shut down. "you can join your boyfriend."  
He morphed into Nexar. "Since you're so fond of keeping people frozen, I thought I'd just put you in Stasis for a while." He let loose with a white beam that hit Tai, Ken, Izzy, Mimi, and Sora. They all looked as if they were encased in ice. None of them were moving. "Damn. Missed some." So he hit the rest of us.  
I couldn't move, or breathe, or anything. I didn't feel like I was suffocating, though. Just...like I was holding my breath. I could still see what was going on from my view, and could still hear perfectly. "Raynor!" Nexar yelled. "Where are you?"  
"Right here, you sadistic bastard." Raynor replied, walking out from behind the crate and priming a couple of small mine-like things. He threw them to the ground. "Beautiful technology, this."  
The mines got up and skittered towards Nexar. The explosion knocked Nexar off his feet-or whatever. He fell. "Argh...I hate this body." He morphed back into Duran. "There. This one's much more maneuverable."  
"Now, you going to fight me?"  
"Yes, Raynor. I shall make a mockery of you, then...delete your friends." He said, looking in our direction. "But, just to make sure there's no more interruptions..." He fired a single shot at the Dark Archon. It exploded, its ball of Dark energy destabilizing. It let out a horrible scream before dying. "Now...where were we?"  
"Medic!"  
"you're hurt?"  
"Not exactly. Look."  
Duran looked past us. "They're out cold...They fainted?"  
"Not good at this, are you? What, your psychic energy drained?"  
"This is a digital universe, genius! I can't use telepathy on a computer program!"  
"Oh. Well, then, don't look behind you."  
He does. Something round is casting a shadow on the ground. Raynor whipped out a radio. "Magellan! Now!"  
The round thing shoots something like the Lock Down missle at Duran. It hits him and a wave of energy washes out from him. "you EMP'ed me!"  
"Yeah. Just so you can't Lock Down anything else."  
"So what?"  
"And your shields are gone."  
"How the hell do you know about my shields?!"  
"Let's see. you're not what you seem. We know that. So we assumed you had something useful. Like shields. Like mech equipment. So EMP quickly takes care of all that good stuff."  
"I've still got my Canister Rifle."  
"And I've still got tricks up my sleeve."  
"Like what?"  
"Like don't look behind you again."  
He does. Nothing this time. Raynor Stimpacks, then lets loose with a spray of bullets. The first hits Duran in the back of the head, displaying his brains in a pink cloud in front of him. For good measure, he pumps him full of, oh say, about 300 or so, then stops. He walks up to Duran's lifeless body, which had morphed back into the Xel'Naga. "Fooled you once, shame on me. Fooled you twice...tsk, tsk...shame on you."  
He pulls out his radio. "Magellan, please eradicate all existence of this...this thing, then forward a message for an anti-stasis unit to get ready."  
Magellan fires some greenish beam on Duran's body, which is in a slowly-growing pool of his own blood. It incinerates itself into nothing. Raynor walks up to me and picks up my D-3, which had been lying on the ground in front of me. "I'm just gonna borrow this for a while."  
I'd say something like "No problem", but I can't. "Be right back. Digiport open!"  
He disappears. After being thouroughly bored with looking at the landscape, I think about Duran's situation. Kind of ironic, I think. He said his race's pride was its downfall. The apple must not fall far from the tree.  
Raynor returns with some Protoss being and another Medic. The Protoss is blue-skinned, like Nexar, and has an cat-like face. Only kind of scaly. It closes its yellow eyes in an expression of deep concentration, and I can feel the Ice-like substance around me...well, it feels like it's melting. The medic uses her Arm cannon, points it at TK's Goliath, and it starts working again. It repeats this with Kari's.  
Never have I felt so stiff in all my life. I mean, I've had to sit still, but this is ridiculous. Anyways, we're all alive, thank God. "Raynor, we all owe our lives to you."  
"you're not the only one who owes something. I'm going to be in debt to Zeratul and the rest of the Protoss well into my next life."  
"Well, thanks."  
"And thanks, Magellan." He says into his radio."  
"Any time you need me."  
"So are you going to have to transport all this stuff back?"  
"Yeah, but that can wait. I think a little celebration is in order."  
* * *  
We've decided to hold a party in the Digiworld, since it seems to be even ground for both timelines. "I can't believe something so beautiful as this came from something so evil." Mimi tells me.  
Everyone's socializing in their predictable pairs. Me and Mimi, Sora and Tai, TK and Kari, Izzy and Joe, Ken, Yolei and Davis...I'm staring out on some body of water. Back when we were first transported into the Digiworld, we started out here. Where we battled Shellmon. The first time Agumon digivolved into Greymon. "you know, two weeks ago if someone told us this would happen I wouldn't have believed them. Wouldn't have believed about a second timeline, wouldn't have believed about Duran, none of it. I should know better."  
"Hey, my reaction would have been the same." Mimi says, resting her head on my shoulder and following my gaze out into the water. "Nobody would have been able to predict this."  
"How do you think we'll get around the DigiPort problem?"  
"I talked to Zeratul. He said he could change the program. He's making a special digiportation place so that if we want to visit Raynor, or the other way around, we can."  
"That was nice of him. Their race is very generous."  
"How did he explain it? 'Our race is powerful, but we know when to be gentle'?"  
"Poetic."  
"I thought so."  
"you know, I was thinking. Some of the Protoss' charitability must have rubbed off on Raynor. So I'm thinking, maybe we should return the favour. Bring ourselves one step closer to being even."  
"And how do you propose we do that, exactly?"  
"We adapt that little sting operation to one of Raynor's enemies. Kerrigan, maybe."  
"Yeah. Somehow I don't think she'd be up for a one-on-one confrontation. She's not that proud, I'd bet."  
"Only one way to find out."  
* * *  
End  
I think that went well. Not that I don't want bad C&C (I mean pointing out flaws, not just "YOU SUCK!"), but I think this is one of the best fics (if not, certainly the best non-Lemon) I've ever written. And I know next to nothing about Digimon. Go me. I did a little research, however, so I know that text-messaging between the dimensions is possible as far as continuity with the show is concerned (also note that I used my signature as Raynor's nick). I'm sorry if people disagree with me on the part about "Anyone can DigiPort if they've got a D-3". That's the major flaw this fic might have. Depending on the C&C, I might remake it so that someone doesn't get Stasised and instead gets shot or something. But if not, I'm leaving it alone. Also, I know there's little mention of Digimon (The mon themselves, not the show). That was just because of my ignorance on the subject Matter. I'm expecting flames for that one.  
The title, Yamato Gun, was originally based on a pun off of Matt's long name (namely, Yamato) and, in my original storyline, the Hyperion was brought into the Digiworld, not Magellan's Science Vessel, and it Yamato'ed Duran (killing him)-but hey, I think this works. I mean, SC fans will agree with me that Duran is not stupid enough to let the Hyperion charge up and then hit him with a Yamato shot. I'm just assuming Duran is stupid enough to turn around a second time without shields.  
One little thing about the IM scene: It's made so Sora comes in first as RynOr (note the capital O) and then Raynor comes in as Ryn0r (note the 0). That's how he was lifaced (to liface is to come into a chatroom as a similar nickname as another person and start talking as him/her). If you change the font to something other than Courier New (or any other fixed- character font, for that Matter) you'll see the difference.  
The final battle was inspired by three things: First of all, I was listening to Papa Roach's Code Of Energy (from Lovehatetragedy), Matthew Good's Weapon (From Avalanche), and The Tea Party's Walking Wounded. I figure Weapon plays some time in the beginning/middle, and Walking wounded starts some time around when everyone gets stasised. As soon as Walking Wounded ends (if you're reading the fic aloud it's right about when the celebration starts), Code Of Energy begins. That's just my opinion, don't take it as the right one just because I wrote the thing. Also, Linkin Park fans (which are probably mailbombing me as we speak) will notice that the final form of Duran, the Xel'Naga, was modelled after the Reanimated Hybrid (the Mech version of Hybrid Theory's "Mascot", the bug/bugcatcher). Yeah, I deserve flames. Go ahead and get Gui Montag in here.  
That's all the really important stuff taken care of. Be nice. I finished this on my birthday.  
Ryn0r   
------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Go   
  
Ê Just In | Classics | Directory | Columns | DictionaryÊÊÊ[ Find ]ÊÊ Log In | Register   
------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Games È StarCraft È Yamato Guntext size: (+) : (-)  
Author: The Reanimated Raynor  
PG-13 - English - Action/Adventure/Mystery - Reviews: 1 - Publish date: 03-16-03 - Updated: 03-16-03 story id: 1271262  
  
Yamato Gun (A Starcraft/Digimon crossover)  
By the Reanimated Raynor (Reanimated_Raynor@interactive.rogers.com)  
Been a while since I made something this...well, epic. How long? Let me put it this way: The last one was my first fic, Peach Paradise 1. (A Nintendo Lemon-yes, you heard me right.) I have also spent the most time editing, tweaking, correcting, proofreading, and MiSTing this entire fic. This is by far the most perfect fic I've written. Of course, some of the elements of the plot, certain descriptions, etc. will probably still get me flamed for it. Oh well. Like that's going to stop me. If you're familiar with my Lemons, you probably know that most of them incorporate some weirdness in them (Take Epilogue, my Star Fox Adventures Lemon, for instance), and this fic is no exception. It's not a Lemon. Yet. I'm working on that. But until then, this has got about a PG-13 or so rating. If you're old enough to play Starcraft, you're old enough to read this fic.  
And now, the fic you've been waiting for...  
Yamato Gun  
Wh-where am I?  
I'm looking around what looks to be the bridge of some spaceship. Normally, I go back to the computer lab when I DigiPort out of the Digiworld. So why am I here? There are several people in this room, all working at computer terminals of some kind.  
"Matt? Where are we?" Gabumon asks me.  
At that, everyone in the room proceeds to turn around and stare directly at me. I sweatdrop.  
The person I assume to be the captain gets up from the elaborate chair in the middle of the room. He looks at me, looks at Gabumon, and seems to be pondering what to say.  
"...What are you doing on my ship?" He says after a while.  
"Uh, I'm not too sure, sir. It's kind of hard to explain."  
"In that case, I think it'd be better to talk with you in the conference room." The Captain turns to one of the people that had been working at a terminal. "Ensign, get Schezar. Tell him he's got the bridge. Something unexpected came up."  
"Yes sir." The Ensign says, and walks off the bridge."  
"Alright everyone, back to work. We'll figure this out. This way...Matt, was it?"  
"Yes sir."  
I follow the Captain to an adjoining room to the bridge. "So you know how you got here?" He asks me.  
"Well, not here specifically, but I do know how I traveled." I pause. I have no idea as to where I am, what date this is, and who this guy is. And I'm about to tell him something I've kept from my own parents. Hoo boy... "I happen to be one of a select few individuals. We are the only ones who have the knowledge and means to travel into an alternate dimension of sorts, called the Digiworld. We use these-" I hold up my D-3. "-to travel there. From there, we do pretty much the same thing to get back. But how I got here, I have no idea."  
"Hmm. you don't know precisely how you get from one dimension to the other, but yet here you are. I don't know whether to call you brave or dumb."  
"Actually, we-me and my friends, that is-were transported into the Digiworld accidentally. It was right about the same time as the really strange weather came over Tokyo."  
" 'Tokyo'? you're from Earth?"  
Did I miss something? "Yeah. you...aren't?"  
"Not directly, no. Guess it's time to hear my story, right? Our race is a descendant of Earth. We happen to be around 40,000 lightyears away from it. A few individuals-well, few as in several hundred thousand-were sent off to colonize other planets. The navigational system of the ships failed, and since we were all in cryogenic stasis we didn't notice until the ships landed. There were 3 surviving colonies, each on different planets in the system-in a part of the universe known to us as the Korpulu sector. The rest is kind of history, a lot of not-too-interesting stuff-but the main thing is, we are at war. We have been fortunate enough to ally with a race called the Protoss, and we are battling against a faction of us Terran as well as another race, called the Zerg."  
I sit and absorb this for some time. Neither of us can think of anything to say for a little while. "So would you be able to get back home from here, you think?" he asks.  
"Not sure. I'll have to load up a program I have on a floppy disk."  
"Oh, joy."  
"What?"  
"We're about three centuries into the future. Floppy disks and that have become just a little archaic about now. you think technical evolution was fast in the twentieth century? you should see the twenty-second. Anyways, it'll take a little reverse engineering, but I'm sure we could jury-rig something."  
"Ok."  
"He's with you, I assume?" the Captain says, motioning to Gabumon.  
"Yeah. His name is Gabumon."  
"Hi." Gabumon says.  
"Anyways, we've figured out that this alternate dimension is actually a giant computer program, and that we sort of turn into computer data when we transport."  
"Weird. So you're kind of like...hackers?"  
I can see he's struggling to understand this. This sounds well beyond their capabilities so far. Of course, nobody from our dimension knows how it works exactly, either. "Not exactly, more like..." I realize I've never really tried to make an analogy to our position in relation to the Digiworld. "...Like characters in a video game, almost."  
"So why bother returning to this digital dimension, if you don't mind me asking?"  
"Well, our job we were sort of destined to do-hence our formal title, the DigiDestined-was to keep watch over the Digiworld. The Digimon-the creatures that reside in the Digiworld, like Gabumon-aren't all good. Some are evil, and it's our job to destroy them."  
"Uh huh." His turn to ponder the information for a while. "...you know, I never properly introduced myself. Sorry about that. The name's Jim Raynor."  
"Thanks, Mr. Raynor."  
"No need for the 'Mister'. Raynor's fine."  
"Alright, Raynor. Now, about that jury-rigged floppy drive?"  
* * *  
I cannot believe how much their technology has exceeded our own. They've got holotechnology. I mean, so do we, but we can actually touch these things! And I had to explain to the best of my ability how the Floppy system works. If only I could contact Izzy, he'd have a field day...but the communication function of the D-3 isn't working for whatever reason...Maybe this dimension, or whatever I'm in, is interfering with the D-3 in some way. "This was actually changed around a bit in the Digiworld by one of the other DigiDestined, a computer whiz named Izzy. He made it so this disk could hold...at least a full Hard Drive worth of information." I say to Raynor, holding out the disk. "Hope your computer's got enough space left to upload this."  
"How much does it need?"  
"About 7 gigabytes."  
"Oh." Raynor seems to be about to crack up into laughter. "Computer, how much available space is there on the main computer drive?"  
The computer blips. "Approximately 32 exobytes." It replies.  
Raynor finally collapses into laughter. "Yeah, I think we'll be able to handle it."  
I suddenly feel very stupid. "Yeah." I say, putting the disk into the makeshift holo-drive. It reads the disk, uploads it, then runs the program. A window full of boxes comes up. "This is the program?" Raynor says.  
"Well, yeah. This was ripped from the Digiworld itself, and each box represents a sector of the world. The black ones are evil, the white ones are good, and the other-colored ones are under dispute."  
"I see."  
I click on a tab on the top. "Oh, great!" I say. "The DigiPort is open now!"  
"So you can go back?"  
"Yeah, I think." I say, getting out my D-3. "Well, if this works, goodbye, Raynor."  
"See ya." He says.  
"Digiport open!"  
* * *  
I'm back in the computer lab. Mimi, Sora and Izzy are there. "Matt! Where the heck have you been?!" Mimi says.  
"I'm not sure, exactly. I was in the Digiworld, then I went to exit out and I ended up on some starship...where was it? Like 40,000 lightyears away three centuries into the future." I reply.  
"That's impossible!" Izzy says. "Digiporting here worked fine yesterday."  
"I know, but it's what happened." I say.  
"What was it like?" Biyomon asks.  
"It was weird." Gabumon replies. "I asked Matt where we were, and then next thing I knew everyone dropped what they were doing and stared at us. Then the captain brought us into this big conference room thing and Matt explained everything."  
"What?!" Mimi shouted. "you could have blown our cover!"  
"Well, yeah, but I mean, come on. They're on the other side of the galaxy. They haven't seen the earth in centuries. Gimme a break." I say.  
"I just hope you're not as loose-lipped to anyone who could blow our cover if they knew."  
"Yeah, I'll be more careful, but since they were in the future I think that they might be in some third dimension."  
"Even so..." Izzy said. "...This is kind of impossible for this to happen. I mean, we only know about the Digiworld, and after all, this is the first time something like this happened."  
"I know. I wonder what's happening with the Digiworld?" I ask into thin air.  
"How'd you get back, if you didn't have the program?" Sora asked.  
"I did, remember? That hacked floppy disk?" I reply. Suddenly, I feel like I've just pushed a self-destruct button or something.  
Mimi flips out again. "you left a copy of the Digiworld program on THEIR COMPUTER?!!"  
"Yeah, but I would never have gotten here if I didn't upload the program." I say sheepishly, holding my ears.  
"I-oooh...I hate it when you're right."  
"Sorry. I'll make a point of being wrong more often, just for you."  
"So what do we do?" Izzy asks.  
"I'm not sure. If one of us gets back there we'll just have to go back. Maybe we could be of some help there also." I say.  
"Oh yeah, I'm sure. I think we'll be able to handle only one dimension at a time." Sora replies.  
"It was just a suggestion."  
* * *  
About a week later, Izzy finally discovers something different in the Digiworld. "I made a catalogue of the Digiworld's code back before Davis and the rest of the new DigiDestined." Izzy explains to me, TK, Tai and Kari, punching up a program on his laptop. "There were 50 characters, and no, I've still got no clue as to what each represent. That's not the weird thing. I did a recent catalogue, and look what happened."  
Izzy tiles the windows. On the left is the original symbol alphabet. On the right is the current one. "There are 17 symbols that were never in the Digiworld's program before."  
"Could that be just...kind of normal for the Digiworld?" TK asks. "I mean, the it could just be evolving or upgrading to Version 2.0 or something."  
"I thought so too, but I was able to figure out what parts of the code were for what purpose in the Digiworld. The 17 symbols were almost exclusively in the DigiPort code. So if I'm right, someone-or something- hacked, or otherwise changed, the system."  
A heavy silence falls over the group. "Someone hacked the Digiworld?" Kari repeats.  
"I'm afraid so. They've made it so we always end up on that ship instead of here. But he, she, it, whatever did this, made a glitch in the code. If we come from the ship to the Digiworld, the next time we DigiPort, we go back to our original DigiPort location, or in other words, here."  
"But what happens if they fix the glitch?" Tai asks.  
"Then we'll be stuck on the ship."  
"Why don't we just remove all the new symbols from the code?" I suggest. "I mean, if the program worked fine without the new ones, wouldn't it just sort of go back to how it was?"  
"Well, you know how there was the equivalent of an Area 51 twelve times over security system on the code?" Izzy says, sweatdropping. "The other place the code appeared was in the security code. I barely made any progress with just the 50 symbols. With 67...I'll have to start all over, and it'll take me months to even scratch the surface."  
"Months?" TK says.  
"Yeah. Straight."  
"Oh, excellent." Kari says. "So that's not really an option right now. What is?"  
"There might be something in the third dimension that we could find out. I mean, if whoever hacked the Digiworld could get past the security system, then they have to know the system inside out. They made it so the digiporter went to this ship for a reason."  
"So I've got to go back." I say.  
"Yeah. We'll come with you."  
"Alright. Sounds like a plan." Tai says. "Let's do it! Digiport open!"  
* * *  
"We're going to need these repairs done in three days, Magellan."  
"Yes, sir. Well within the time frame we need."  
"Good."  
Raynor gets up from his chair. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in my-"  
Raynor notices us. "-Conference room. Welcome back, Matt."  
"Hi."  
"Another glitch in your digital world?  
"No. We've figured out some more stuff about what's happening. I think you should hear this."  
"Alright. Good thing there's a lull in the attacks right now. Are these your friends?"  
"Yes. This is Kari, and Tai, TK and Izzy."  
"Hi." They all said.  
"Hi." Raynor returned. "Well, you all follow me. Kazansky, you've got the bridge."  
"Roger."  
Me, Kari, TK, Tai and Izzy walk in after Raynor to the conference room. "So what have you found out?" He asks.  
"Well-actually, I'm not the most technologically gifted person here. Izzy?"  
"I always have to do the explaining..." Izzy says under his breath, a slightly annoyed tone to his voice. "I was able to take a look at the actual code that makes up the dimension known as the Digiworld. We've known about it, and have been traveling there and back, for several years. When we were the only DigiDestined-us five and 3 others, Mimi, Sora and Joe- there were only 50 characters that made up the 'alphabet' of the program. Now, there have been 17 characters that were inserted into the program, and all were in the transportation sector and the security sector of the program exclusively. In short, the program was rearranged by someone who knew the program well enough to get past all the security systems and add the symbols."  
Raynor thinks about this for a second. "And this all means...?"  
Izzy facefaults. "It means whoever changed the program made it so we end up here."  
"Ah...So they knew about this timeline, your timeline, and the Digiworld?"  
"Yes."  
"Beautiful."  
"Yeah. you know how you said 'the rest is history'? We need to hear it." I say.  
"Alright. Basically, the Zerg tried to assimilate us into their race. That's what they do-how they evolve. Anyway, they succeeded, assimilating a psychic named Sarah Kerrigan. She is now in control of the entire race. They were originally controlled by this big being called the Overmind, but it was killed by the late Tassadar, a Protoss warrior who brought the two sides of the Protoss race-the High and Dark Templar-together but sacrificed himself to kill the Overmind...everybody with me still?"  
"Yeah." we all said.  
"Good. After that, Kerrigan took over and then proceeded to rally her troops and kicked the living shit out of us. She used both the Protoss and us Terrans, both to regain control over the remaining factions of her race and to sucker us into her trap. Another Protoss warrior-named Fenix-died in one of the battles, as did a Terran General, named Edmund Duke. She helped to destroy a collective enemy by enlisting an infested Terran by the name of Samir Duran, and he then abandoned Kerrigan. He's been nowhere to be found ever since."  
"This Duran...he was part of the Zerg?" Kari asks.  
"Yeah, but how he managed to think for himself I don't know. I do know of someone who might know more about Duran...I'll see if I can arrange a meeting with him."  
"Thanks." I say.  
* * *  
A day later, we're down on the planet of Shakuras, which Raynor's ship, named the Hyperion, was orbiting. We are in a strangely-shaped building, called a Nexus by the Protoss. We're awaiting the arrival of the guy Raynor got us a meeting with, named Zeratul. "Ah, he's here." Raynor says.  
There's nobody here. "Are you sure?" TK says, looking around.  
"Yeah. you see that distortion, there?" Raynor points to a window, where light seems to be bending. "That's him."  
The figure decloaks itself. A tall, whitish-grey-skinned person is standing in front of us, with a large flowing cape. "En Taro Adun." He says- or rather thinks, as he doesn't seem to have a mouth. He must be psychic.  
"En Taro Adun, Zeratul." Raynor replies. "How are things on Shakuras?"  
"They are better, now that the Zerg have left. We have a chance to rebuild our once-great race."  
"Good to hear."  
"Who are these Terran? I have not met them...and I sense something...different about them."  
"They're actually from a different timeline, about 300 of our years back in time and from Earth. This is Matt, and TK, Izzy, Tai, and Kari."  
"Hi." Came the chorus of us five.  
"What brings them to Shakuras? Do they need assistance against the Zerg?"  
"No, they got here-well, I'll let Izzy explain. He seems to know the most about the details."  
After Izzy facefaulted at having to explain the program and everything a third time, we inquired about Duran. Zeratul growled at the mention of that name. "Duran...he is not what he seems, even though he is known to be infested now. Or so we think. I was drawn to the planet of Braxis, a snow-covered planet in this sector. There, I saw an experiment that Duran himself carried out-the experiment that the Overmind tried to carry out-to create a Zerg/Protoss hybrid. He succeeded, unfortunately. He said he seeded many planets with this being. There was some distortion in his voice-only 3 beings have that distortion-most of the Templar from our race...The Xel'Naga, which were wiped out by the Zerg...and the Overmind."  
"The Overmind is dead, isn't it? I mean, Tassadar killed it, right?" Tai says.  
"Yes. Also, Duran was, we think, a Terran originally, and even if he were Protoss, could not be infested at any rate. And there has been no record we have encountered of a living Xel'Naga for thousands of years. Which means all three choices are not right. Duran had said something about being known by many names, on many worlds...I have not yet deciphered what that means. I also do not know where he is. He contacted me via psychic link when I was on Braxis."  
"Do you think he would be able to rearrange an entire program like that, though?"  
"I would not underestimate his technical knowledge. He could have, yes."  
"Ok. So assuming Duran's our guy, what do we do about it?" Raynor asks.  
"We have several engineers that might be able to help with the code. Having warp technology for millenia, we may be able to achieve more progress in correcting the program. May I see the program?" Zeratul asks Izzy. "If we could make out what the symbols mean, then we could be able to prevent this from happening again."  
Izzy hands Zeratul his laptop, and when Zeratul looks at the screen, his eyes go wide. "This cannot be."  
"...What?" Kari asks.  
"These are Protoss symbols. This means life, and this strength, and-" he stares at one particular symbol. "-This symbol is part of the original alphabet we had, that was in use when we were visited by the Xel'Naga. This means a catastrophic change, one that would mean tearing a world apart and putting it back together." He scans down the rest of the program. "This is the only occurrence of this symbol, and in the old ways, if this symbol is shown only once...it means Armageddon will befall the cosmos."  
* * *  
Back at the computer lab, we told Mimi, Sora and Joe what happened. "So what will happen? Is there still something that could rip apart the Digiworld?" Sora asks.  
"If someone can change the code, they can delete it. And if it's deleted, it's lost forever." Izzy explains. "So yes, this Duran, if he changed the code he could delete everything and destroy the Digiworld."  
All this time, Kari seems kind of distant. Like there's something she's almost figured out.  
"He knows what we're going to do." she says.  
"Everyone stops and looks at Kari. "What?" Tai says.  
"Duran knows what we're going to do. He put the 17 symbols in, then made it so there was only one instance of that Apocalypse symbol. The only one with that knowledge would have been Zeratul. And we went into a meeting with him. He must know what we will do before we do."  
"He is psychic, remember." I interject. "He contacted Zeratul from a psychic link." A short pause. "So if he knows what we're going to do how are we going to fight him?"  
"We make sure he doesn't know." Mimi says.  
"I repeat, how?"  
"Post-hypnotic suggestions?" TK suggests.  
Everyone seems to realize the validity of that idea is at the same time. "Great idea, TK!" Tai says. "But...who here knows how to hypnotize someone?"  
"I'll see if maybe there's a book at the library. It's worth a try." Izzy says.  
"Alright. Sounds like a plan."  
* * *  
Izzy, to everyone's delight, had found a book. But what are we going to say? What kind of suggestion would we put in to our heads? We've been trying to figure that out for the last hour. "We're going to have to figure out what we'd do under normal circumstances." Sora says. "And then we're going to have to think up an alternate plan and put that into our subconscious."  
"Yeah. We usually send our Digimon to attack the enemy. So...what, we go at him ourselves?" I say.  
"If we had something to fight with. Maybe we could get some stuff from Raynor, rifles or something." TK says.  
"you're full of good ideas, aren't you?" Kari says. "There's going to be a lot of planning involved to choreograph this right. But what's stopping Duran from reading our thoughts when we tell Raynor our plan?"  
"Shoot." Tai says. "That's the one major flaw. How will we able to get Raynor in on this without Duran knowing?"  
"He probably can't use his psychic powers interdimensionally." Izzy suggests. "If we can somehow get Raynor into the Digiworld then we might be able to get some plan together."  
"We don't even know if it's a different dimension. I mean, this is 300 years into the future, 40,000 lightyears away, but from this planet. We might just be going back and forward in time." Sora says.  
"Let's assume that this is an alternate dimension, for the time being. If it turns out to be the same dimension, we'll be dead. Let's just work with what we've got right now. So we need to get the new DigiDestined to go to Raynor's ship and talk to him, while giving them as few details Duran doesn't already know as possible."  
"Alright. I'll get on the phone, talk to Davis, Yolei and Ken. See if this is gonna work." Tai says.  
"Sounds like a plan. Where are we going to meet?" TK asks.  
"At the soccer field?"  
"Ok. Anybody have a problem with meeting tomorrow, after school?"  
"We'll be there." We all say.  
* * *  
"Ok, I get that. Sounds kinda weird, though."  
"Davis..." Yolei says. "How weird is it compared to seven kids with pet monsters going and saving a digital dimension?"  
"Good point. So when we get to the Hyperion, what do we say? 'Hi, Raynor, next chance you get could you come with us to the Digiworld?' And even so, how'll he get there?"  
"One of you's going to have to stay in the digital world with us." Izzy says. "Then Raynor can use his or her D-3 to get there."  
"Is that possible? I mean, only DigiDestined have tried to Digiport before." Mimi asks.  
"I certainly hope it works." Ken replies. "Otherwise, we may as well throw up our hands and get out the white flag."  
"We're working with a lot of assumptions here." I say. "If one of these is wrong..."  
"Hey, don't think like that." Sora says. "It'll work, you just have to think positive."  
"Ok, I'm positive this will fail."  
"Matt..."  
"I'm kidding! Of course I think this'll work. Otherwise I wouldn't be here."  
"Ok. Now that that little crisis is averted, who's going to stay?" Yolei asks.  
"No offense to Davis, but I think he should stay." Ken says.  
"Hey!" He replies.  
"Well, you're not exactly that good a speaker. If Yolei and I go we'll make a much better-sounding case with the stuff we do have."  
"But-I-oh, alright."  
"Thanks for understanding."  
"Besides..." Kari says. "you'll know the plan before they do."  
"Someone should stay here to hold down the fort, so to speak." Joe says. "And I'd be more than happy to stay here. Besides..." Joe whispers in Tai's ear. "I don't think I'll be able to handle the kind of weaponry that Raynor'll get us."  
"Alright, Joe." Tai says. "If you want, you can stay here. We've gotta get this done now, so let's hightail it back to the computer lab and get to the Digiworld."  
* * *  
It's been a suspenseful ten minutes. We don't know what Raynor's reaction will be to this. Suddenly, Raynor, Ken and Yolei emerges out of a TV that was lying in the middle of the field (where we came into the Digiworld from also). He looks around. "This is the Digiworld?" He asks.  
"Yeah." I say.  
"It's very realistic. you got here from the 20th century?"  
"Yeah. We did."  
"It's mind-boggling. This looks to be more like something from my time. Or later."  
"...Which would explain a lot." Izzy says.  
"Yeah. Anyway, your friends told me you had a plan, but didn't tell me the details. What have you got?"  
"Hold on a sec." TK says.  
"What?"  
"We'll need someone to go back so we can accomplish our plan without Duran knowing." I explain. "Ken, Yolei? Sorry, but we still need you to play dumb here."  
Ken and Yolei get themselves gone. "There. Now, we might be able to pull this off."  
We all explain the details of our plan. "Ok. I get that. Sounds like you've got something there. Do you have something that'll be able to communicate between this universe and another?"  
"Yeah. We've got my laptop."  
"Ok, but we're going to have to get Yolei or Ken to get it. They're the ones who are going to end up directly in our universe." Sora says.  
"I'll go get them." Sora says, and walks after them.  
"So what do I do until then? Stay here?"  
"Yeah. Sorry." I reply.  
"Hey, if it saves this place..." Raynor looks around. "This looks like a paradise."  
"It would be, had it not been almost destroyed about five thousand times by now."  
"Oh. Everything comes at a price."  
"Unfortunately."  
Sora returns with Ken and Yolei. "Which one of you knows where my apartment is?" Izzy asks.  
"I do." Yolei replies.  
"Ok. I'll need my laptop so that Raynor can communicate with you guys on the Hyperion. Both of you need to go back so that you'll end up directly in Raynor's dimension after, but Yolei, you need to go to my apartment and get the laptop. Here's my key." Izzy hands a key to Yolei. "Sorry to pick on you two, but you don't know what's happening, and we need that."  
"No problem."  
Ken and Yolei DigiPort out. "This is going to be difficult." Raynor says. "Of course, all the times we've seen him, he's probably read our thoughts and would know what to do."  
"So this might come as a shock to him. We could use that to our advantage." Tai says.  
"Yeah. We could maybe call for a Dimensional Recall, bring in a Dark Archon, and then Maelstrom Duran."  
"What's a Dark Archon?" Kari asks.  
"Well, these Protoss beings, surrounded by Dark Energy, they're pretty elite. They have the ability to Maelstrom people-freeze any organic being. In otherwords, if Duran's not a robot, he'll be frozen. There's only one thing about the Dimensional Recall, though."  
"And that is..." Sora says.  
"It will require close to all the energy from 5 organisms, which means that the five of you will need to give up your energy to transport this thing. It'll knock the 5 of you out, but only for a minute. We can get Medics there fast to help you."  
"And then we can destroy him...it...whatever." Mimi says.  
"Exactly."  
Ken and Yolei return. Yolei is out of breath. "I ran all the way there." She says between gasps.  
"Ok. your D3 things, they can communicate with these?" Raynor asks.  
"Yeah. Like in a chat room."  
"Alright then."  
Ken and Yolei Digiport back. Izzy sets up the Laptop IM room.  
--- *RynOr has entered DIGIM  
*Ryn0r has entered DIGIM  
*Yo has entered DIGIM  
*Ken has entered DIGIM  
(Pause)  
Yo: They don't believe us.  
Ryn0r: Show them this: I was born on Mar Sara, January 29th, 2516, my parents were Elizabeth and Jacob Raynor, and I had 7 years Wraith and Vulture Piloting experience before that whole mess with Mengsk and the Magistrate of the old confederacy.  
(short pause)  
Ken: They still don't believe you.  
Ryn0r: WHAT?! DO THEY THINK I TOLD MY LIFE STORY TO A BUNCH OF KIDS I DON'T EVEN KNOW?!  
(short pause)  
Yo: Now they believe you.  
Ryn0r: -_-;  
Yo: Yeah. Anyway, who should I talk to?  
Ryn0r: Talk to Zeratul. Get Magellan to patch you through.  
Yo: He's patching me through.  
(short pause)  
Yo: That's Zeratul?  
Ryn0r: Judging by your reaction, yeah, that's Zeratul. Show the screen to him, but don't look at it yourself. Just so you still don't know our plan.  
Yo: OK. He says N Tarot Adoon or something.  
Ryn0r: No peeking.  
(short pause)  
Ryn0r: I'm in the dimension the other Terran were in, Zeratul. We need to borrow a Dark Archon, as well as 5 energy converters and a Recall unit.  
Yo: He says he's going to hook up to the IM room.  
Ryn0r: I said no peeking!  
Yo: I covered up the last 10 lines. We can't see anything. Don't worry.  
Ryn0r: Ok then.  
*Zer has entered DIGIM  
Zer: We shall send what you need. Do you require it to be sent to the Digital world?  
Ryn0r: The Dark Archon we can Recall from this dimension, right?  
Zer: Correct.  
Ryn0r: Then we only need the 5 converters in the Digiworld.  
Zer: Very well. you shall have them by the end of the next hour.  
*Zer has exited DIGIM  
Yo: Ok. Anything else we need?  
Ryn0r: Ask if Alan Schezar's on the bridge.  
Yo: ...how do you pronounce his last name?  
*Ryn0r blinks  
Ryn0r: Ski-zar.  
Yo: Ok. Thanks.  
(short pause)  
Ken: He's here.  
Ryn0r: Give him the laptop.  
(short pause)  
*Yo's name has been changed to Sch  
Sch: you got there OK?  
Ryn0r: Yeah. Listen, I'm going to need...  
Ryn0r: 4 Gauss rifles  
Ryn0r: 4 C-10 Canister rifles  
Ryn0r: 5 Medics  
Rynor: 8 Marine Armour Suits  
Sch: (singing) And a partridge in a pear tree...  
Ryn0r: Very funny.  
Ryn0r: And make sure all the Armour suits are Stimpack-compliant.  
Sch: Check.  
Ryn0r: 2 Goliaths  
Sch: w/ or w/o drivers?  
Ryn0r: Without. I'm going to have to teach these guys how to drive these things, so can you FTP a tutorial?  
*Sch is requesting a FTP: Goli.exe *FTP is approx. 17 terabytes *accept?  
*Ryn0r blinks  
Ryn0r: Uh, Schezar? send the smallest one. Remember, this is 20th century. I've got 7 gigs of space to work with.  
*FTP has been cancelled  
*Sch is requesting a FTP: Goli.exe *FTP is approx. 3 gigabytes *accept?  
*Accepted. *Downloading. *File Transfer Rate: Approx. 90 Mb/Sec. *Estimated time of completion: 5 min 40.8 sec  
Ryn0r: Thx.  
Sch: Wlkm.  
Ryn0r: you can hand this back to Yolei now.  
*Sch's name has been changed to Yo  
Yo: What're you DLing?  
Ryn0r: I promise, when this is over, we'll fill you in. But for now, it's lights out.  
Ken: It's not our bedtime yet.  
*Ryn0r facefaults  
Rynor: I mean I can't tell you anything.  
Ken: Oh.  
Yo: We knew that.  
RynOr: Riiight.  
*Yo whacks Ryn0r around with a metal hammer  
Ryn0r: Ow.  
*RynOr gets out his Gauss Rifle  
RynOr: Don't mess with me if you don't want to see this pointed at you.  
RynOr: it can fire 30 bullets in 10 seconds.  
*RynOr smiles evilly  
Ken: Don't flip out on us.  
Yo: Eeep. I'll be good.  
*Yo apologizes profusely  
RynOr: Good.  
*RynOr puts the rifle away  
Ken: Is that the rifle in your pocket or are you just happy to see Sora?  
Ryn0r: For the sake of your friend's laptop, I'm glad looks don't kill.  
Yo: Lol.  
Ryn0r: How come Ken is on separately?  
Ken: I'm in the room from a panel on the bridge. I've covered up everything pertinent, so don't worry. I still have no idea what's happening.  
Ryn0r: Good. Our success depends on that.  
*File Transfer complete. *Open now?  
Ryn0r: DL's done.  
*Open cancelled. *Goli.exe is stored in "C:\Windows\Goli".  
Ryn0r: To save memory I'm going to exit the IM.  
Yo: Ok. What should we do until you need us again?  
RynOr: Sit there and twiddle your thumbs.  
Ryn0r: Hey! That wasn't me. Stop it, Sora.  
RynOr: Sure it was me. Don't listen, I think I'm being lifaced.  
Ryn0r: Sora...  
RynOr: What? Oops.  
*Ryn0r (The REAL one) shoots the imposter  
*RynOr has exited IM  
Ryn0r: Ask Schezar for some temporary quarters.  
Ken: you mean money that'll disappear after a while?  
Ryn0r: you always a punster?  
Ken: yeah.  
Ryn0r: groan  
Yo: (To Mimi) Keep your hands to yourself!  
Ryn0r: I hate punsters.  
Ryn0r: *blink* Yolei...  
Yo: Sorry. I'm just going to not say anything anymore.  
Ryn0r: Thanks.  
Ryn0r: Even though I'm logging off now.  
Ryn0r: Cya. ^_^  
*Ryn0r has exited IM  
*Yo has exited IM  
*Ken has exited IM  
---  
"Alright, that's taken care of." Raynor says. "I've got some stuff on the way for you guys. Rifles, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, mech suits, and medics for you guys."  
"Who's getting what?"  
"Tai, Matt, Davis and Ken are getting the rifles, Mimi, Sora, Yolei and Izzy are getting the grenade launchers-"  
"you sure we can handle these things?" Izzy interrupted.  
"Yeah. These things are 24th century technology. The launchers are lighter than the rifles."  
"Define 'light'." Tai says.  
"Oh, about...half a kilo for the rifles, a quarter kilo for the rifles."  
"Wow, that's light."  
"Yeah. Anyways, the mechs go to TK and Kari, and you're all getting armour."  
"Ok. We really appreciate this, Raynor." I say.  
"Hey, no problem. I'm a freedom fighter, remember?"  
* * *  
Ken and Yolei have transported back with all the stuff. It's in 3 big crates so as not to show them (and subsequently Duran) what's being transported. "Alright. We've got the candy." I say. Candy was the agreed- upon euphemism we use around Ken and Yolei.  
We've got codenames for the specifics, too. 'Candles' are the grenade launchers, 'flashlights' are the rifles, 'legs' are the mechs, and 'doors' are the armour. "Yeah, well, don't start calling me a candyman or anything."  
" 'Candy'?" Ken asks.  
"We made up all these codenames so as to discuss these in your prescence. Just so you don't feel left out." Tai replies.  
"Oh. Thanks." Yolei says.  
"you're welcome. Now, we've got the candy, now we need the toothache...Duran."  
"Alright. So we're going to have to go back to the Hyperion and call him out." Ken says.  
"No, first we need to do some stuff-you know what..." Izzy says. "We can just make it that you don't remember anything. So we can tell you. Everything."  
"Cool."  
We explain everything, elaborating about the Dark Archon, and so on. "And so we've got to hypnotize everyone so they don't think about the plan. Telepaths can't read a person's subconcious." I explain.  
"Alright. Izzy?"  
"Uh...sorry. I forgot it in the real world."  
Everyone except Izzy facefaults.  
* * *  
After another short visit to our timeline we've got the book. Izzy's already hypnotized everyone else, and nobody knows the plan except Raynor, who's going to be coordinating our attack, and Izzy, because he's last to be hypnotized. Now someone's got to wipe Izzy's mind. We draw straws, and unfortunately, I get the short one. Hope I don't make him think he's a chicken or anything.  
Izzy is sitting now, his back to one of the crates. What are they for again? Oh well, I'm sure we'll know what to do. Anyway, I read what it says in the book. "I'm going to count to 5. On the count of five, you're going to be sound asleep. One, you're starting to get tired. your eyes are getting heavy. Two, you're starting to really feel it now. A wave of tiredness is washing over you. Three, your entire body feels like it's made of lead, you're so tired. you're drifting off. Four, you're almost asleep, you're slipping, every part of you is relaxing, and...five, you're asleep." I look up. Izzy's asleep. "Alright. Now I-" I can feel my lips moving, my voice box vibrating...but I can't hear my own words. I'm assuming I'm talking...oh, I get it. It's so I can't hear the plan again myself. Good thinking, Izzy. "-Now I'm going to count backwards from 5 to 1. When I get to 1 you won't remember anything about the plan consciously, but you will know what to do. Five, you're starting to wake up, the last remnants of your dream are fading away. Four, your eyes are getting lighter, three, they're getting even lighter, two, energy is flooding your system, you're almost out of your sleep, and one, you're awake."  
He's awake. "So when do we begin?" Izzy says  
"We've already finished."  
"Oh, the old 'fastest gun in the west' routine?"  
"Knew something would have come out of us getting you the K-PAX DVD for Christmas."  
"Yeah, well, apart from learning a lot of stuff about how they put together some of the scenes, I did remember a few quotes."  
"Right. Anyways, we're ready now. Who's going to DigiPort to the Hyperion?...Right, Mimi. Forgot."  
"No, it was just imprinted into your subconcious. Slight difference."  
"Yeah. Anyways...Mimi?"  
"See you. Digiport open!"  
She digiports out. "you don't remember anything?"  
"Nope."  
"Not even feeling tired, then just going to sleep?"  
"No."  
"And you don't think you're a chicken?"  
"Buck-baguck!"  
"Yeah. you're normal."  
Mimi returns. "That was quick." Tai says.  
"I just said, out loud, for Duran to come to the Digiworld and then digiported out."  
"Hope he heard."  
"I heard."  
Everyone spins around, and stares at Duran.  
* * *  
He just came out of nowhere-well, so did we, but at least there's some noise accompanying it to announce it. And that cool theme music. At any rate, he is here.  
HE'S HERE?!  
"Do you know why the Digiworld was created?" He asks, jumping down from his perch on one of the crates.  
"No. Why?" I reply.  
"It was created by me. It was for a test of crossbreeding."  
"Crossbreeding?" Izzy says. "But most of the Digimon here aren't even close to animals on Earth."  
"Not true. And even some of the ones that aren't, they're modelled after organisms I encountered. I used this world to crossbreed several organisms, and it resulted in all the digimon you have encountered, and truly all the digimon, including your own. you must realize that I am not what I seem by now. I am not human, nor infested."  
"Then what are you?" Ken asks.  
"Hmm...since I'm about to debug this program before deleting it, I may as well show my true form."  
He's encased in a bright ball of light that expands to about three times its size, slowly. When it fades, a 15-foot blue-skinned and cloaked being stands in his place. "I have said to Zeratul that I come by many names, on many worlds. Like the God of the Protoss before the Aeon of Strife, Nexar."  
Another bright ball. Another transformation. A brain-like organism is now sitting before us, only it's about 50 feet big. "I was the Zerg's Overmind as well. I was the brainchild-pardon the pun, as I know I look like a brain-of Kerrigan, as well as the taking over of Aiur, the Protoss' old homeworld.  
Another ball. The Terran Duran is standing before us again. "And of course, then Raynor and the UED know me as Samir Duran."  
Yet another ball. This is what I assume to be the last transformation. A surprisingly Human-like being is standing here now. It is green skinned, and seemingly covered with metal plates or scales. It has wings, big ones, like a dragonflies'. It's carrying a large green-handled scythe, with a small red blade. "I do not have a name in this form." It says. "I am the last of the Xel'Naga."  
"The Xel'Naga?"  
"Yes. Our race was what stirred the pot, so to speak. We created the Zerg forces. We also created the Protoss, though they were much more highly evolved than the larvae-like species we made the Zerg out of. We orchestrated all the events that led to our race's destruction, and it was because we were too proud. We thought we were Gods, justified in manipulating the evolution of species around the galaxy. Which was why our race was destroyed. All except me. I was watching on a nearby moon when our race was massacred by Zerg attackers. We were completely unprepared for an attack."  
"Served you right, playing God like that."  
"We were gods! We had the knowledge that would have taken your race millions of aeons to figure out, and only in several thousand years did we accomplish that! We evolved at such a frenzied pace, it put the rapidly assimilating Zerg species to shame!" It said, its purple eyes flashing a bright flickering red. "Now..." It morphed back into Duran's form. "This is my favorite form to take when I feel...alive again. So it is only fitting I will be in this form when I destroy you and then this program!"  
Raynor yelled "NOW!" from his hiding place behind one of the crates.  
Because we used that as a trigger, we immediately acted, as if on instinct. Davis, Sora, Mimi, Tai and I pressed the button on our energy converters.  
* * *  
It felt...it was like my soul was pulled out of my body. Like the only thing I could think about was being so very tired... I barely heard my own body hit the ground. Next thing I knew, I was being revived by one of Raynor's Medics. "We don't have much time." Raynor said before I got up. I never felt so tired in my life. "Here, Matt, get this on and get your rifle."  
I did so. Everyone had their armour on already, and Kari and TK were already in their Goliaths. "Ready?"  
"Ready!" came the chorus of all 10 of us.  
"GO!"  
8 of us Stimpacked ourselves at the same time. It was like pure energy, a bolt of lightning, going right through me. I just let loose with the bullets, as did Tai, Davis and Ken. Mimi, Sora, Yolei and Izzy were hitting him with their Canister rifles, and TK and Kari hit him with their Twin Autocannons. Then the Maelstrom started to wear off. "YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!" he shouted.  
He aimed at TK's Goliath. Ha! They're guarded by Protoss shields and ultra-thick armour. What's he going to do with his launcher?  
He shot some weird missile thing. We could hear the machine shutting down. "Beautiful technology, this. Consider yourself Locked Down, Takeru. And as for you, Hikari..." He shot another one at Kari's Goliath and it also shut down. "you can join your boyfriend."  
He morphed into Nexar. "Since you're so fond of keeping people frozen, I thought I'd just put you in Stasis for a while." He let loose with a white beam that hit Tai, Ken, Izzy, Mimi, and Sora. They all looked as if they were encased in ice. None of them were moving. "Damn. Missed some." So he hit the rest of us.  
I couldn't move, or breathe, or anything. I didn't feel like I was suffocating, though. Just...like I was holding my breath. I could still see what was going on from my view, and could still hear perfectly. "Raynor!" Nexar yelled. "Where are you?"  
"Right here, you sadistic bastard." Raynor replied, walking out from behind the crate and priming a couple of small mine-like things. He threw them to the ground. "Beautiful technology, this."  
The mines got up and skittered towards Nexar. The explosion knocked Nexar off his feet-or whatever. He fell. "Argh...I hate this body." He morphed back into Duran. "There. This one's much more maneuverable."  
"Now, you going to fight me?"  
"Yes, Raynor. I shall make a mockery of you, then...delete your friends." He said, looking in our direction. "But, just to make sure there's no more interruptions..." He fired a single shot at the Dark Archon. It exploded, its ball of Dark energy destabilizing. It let out a horrible scream before dying. "Now...where were we?"  
"Medic!"  
"you're hurt?"  
"Not exactly. Look."  
Duran looked past us. "They're out cold...They fainted?"  
"Not good at this, are you? What, your psychic energy drained?"  
"This is a digital universe, genius! I can't use telepathy on a computer program!"  
"Oh. Well, then, don't look behind you."  
He does. Something round is casting a shadow on the ground. Raynor whipped out a radio. "Magellan! Now!"  
The round thing shoots something like the Lock Down missle at Duran. It hits him and a wave of energy washes out from him. "you EMP'ed me!"  
"Yeah. Just so you can't Lock Down anything else."  
"So what?"  
"And your shields are gone."  
"How the hell do you know about my shields?!"  
"Let's see. you're not what you seem. We know that. So we assumed you had something useful. Like shields. Like mech equipment. So EMP quickly takes care of all that good stuff."  
"I've still got my Canister Rifle."  
"And I've still got tricks up my sleeve."  
"Like what?"  
"Like don't look behind you again."  
He does. Nothing this time. Raynor Stimpacks, then lets loose with a spray of bullets. The first hits Duran in the back of the head, displaying his brains in a pink cloud in front of him. For good measure, he pumps him full of, oh say, about 300 or so, then stops. He walks up to Duran's lifeless body, which had morphed back into the Xel'Naga. "Fooled you once, shame on me. Fooled you twice...tsk, tsk...shame on you."  
He pulls out his radio. "Magellan, please eradicate all existence of this...this thing, then forward a message for an anti-stasis unit to get ready."  
Magellan fires some greenish beam on Duran's body, which is in a slowly-growing pool of his own blood. It incinerates itself into nothing. Raynor walks up to me and picks up my D-3, which had been lying on the ground in front of me. "I'm just gonna borrow this for a while."  
I'd say something like "No problem", but I can't. "Be right back. Digiport open!"  
He disappears. After being thouroughly bored with looking at the landscape, I think about Duran's situation. Kind of ironic, I think. He said his race's pride was its downfall. The apple must not fall far from the tree.  
Raynor returns with some Protoss being and another Medic. The Protoss is blue-skinned, like Nexar, and has an cat-like face. Only kind of scaly. It closes its yellow eyes in an expression of deep concentration, and I can feel the Ice-like substance around me...well, it feels like it's melting. The medic uses her Arm cannon, points it at TK's Goliath, and it starts working again. It repeats this with Kari's.  
Never have I felt so stiff in all my life. I mean, I've had to sit still, but this is ridiculous. Anyways, we're all alive, thank God. "Raynor, we all owe our lives to you."  
"you're not the only one who owes something. I'm going to be in debt to Zeratul and the rest of the Protoss well into my next life."  
"Well, thanks."  
"And thanks, Magellan." He says into his radio."  
"Any time you need me."  
"So are you going to have to transport all this stuff back?"  
"Yeah, but that can wait. I think a little celebration is in order."  
* * *  
We've decided to hold a party in the Digiworld, since it seems to be even ground for both timelines. "I can't believe something so beautiful as this came from something so evil." Mimi tells me.  
Everyone's socializing in their predictable pairs. Me and Mimi, Sora and Tai, TK and Kari, Izzy and Joe, Ken, Yolei and Davis...I'm staring out on some body of water. Back when we were first transported into the Digiworld, we started out here. Where we battled Shellmon. The first time Agumon digivolved into Greymon. "you know, two weeks ago if someone told us this would happen I wouldn't have believed them. Wouldn't have believed about a second timeline, wouldn't have believed about Duran, none of it. I should know better."  
"Hey, my reaction would have been the same." Mimi says, resting her head on my shoulder and following my gaze out into the water. "Nobody would have been able to predict this."  
"How do you think we'll get around the DigiPort problem?"  
"I talked to Zeratul. He said he could change the program. He's making a special digiportation place so that if we want to visit Raynor, or the other way around, we can."  
"That was nice of him. Their race is very generous."  
"How did he explain it? 'Our race is powerful, but we know when to be gentle'?"  
"Poetic."  
"I thought so."  
"you know, I was thinking. Some of the Protoss' charitability must have rubbed off on Raynor. So I'm thinking, maybe we should return the favour. Bring ourselves one step closer to being even."  
"And how do you propose we do that, exactly?"  
"We adapt that little sting operation to one of Raynor's enemies. Kerrigan, maybe."  
"Yeah. Somehow I don't think she'd be up for a one-on-one confrontation. She's not that proud, I'd bet."  
"Only one way to find out."  
* * *  
End  
I think that went well. Not that I don't want bad C&C (I mean pointing out flaws, not just "YOU SUCK!"), but I think this is one of the best fics (if not, certainly the best non-Lemon) I've ever written. And I know next to nothing about Digimon. Go me. I did a little research, however, so I know that text-messaging between the dimensions is possible as far as continuity with the show is concerned (also note that I used my signature as Raynor's nick). I'm sorry if people disagree with me on the part about "Anyone can DigiPort if they've got a D-3". That's the major flaw this fic might have. Depending on the C&C, I might remake it so that someone doesn't get Stasised and instead gets shot or something. But if not, I'm leaving it alone. Also, I know there's little mention of Digimon (The mon themselves, not the show). That was just because of my ignorance on the subject Matter. I'm expecting flames for that one.  
The title, Yamato Gun, was originally based on a pun off of Matt's long name (namely, Yamato) and, in my original storyline, the Hyperion was brought into the Digiworld, not Magellan's Science Vessel, and it Yamato'ed Duran (killing him)-but hey, I think this works. I mean, SC fans will agree with me that Duran is not stupid enough to let the Hyperion charge up and then hit him with a Yamato shot. I'm just assuming Duran is stupid enough to turn around a second time without shields.  
One little thing about the IM scene: It's made so Sora comes in first as RynOr (note the capital O) and then Raynor comes in as Ryn0r (note the 0). That's how he was lifaced (to liface is to come into a chatroom as a similar nickname as another person and start talking as him/her). If you change the font to something other than Courier New (or any other fixed- character font, for that Matter) you'll see the difference.  
The final battle was inspired by three things: First of all, I was listening to Papa Roach's Code Of Energy (from Lovehatetragedy), Matthew Good's Weapon (From Avalanche), and The Tea Party's Walking Wounded. I figure Weapon plays some time in the beginning/middle, and Walking wounded starts some time around when everyone gets stasised. As soon as Walking Wounded ends (if you're reading the fic aloud it's right about when the celebration starts), Code Of Energy begins. That's just my opinion, don't take it as the right one just because I wrote the thing. Also, Linkin Park fans (which are probably mailbombing me as we speak) will notice that the final form of Duran, the Xel'Naga, was modelled after the Reanimated Hybrid (the Mech version of Hybrid Theory's "Mascot", the bug/bugcatcher). Yeah, I deserve flames. Go ahead and get Gui Montag in here.  
That's all the really important stuff taken care of. Be nice. I finished this on my birthday.  
Ryn0r   
------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Go 


End file.
